Posts by: Suchat Pederson

In a lot of ways, the non-flying service members assigned to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan are insulated from the war. The fight takes place largely out of sight, on the other side of the high mountains that ring this vast and in many ways Spartan base – one that is attacked only sporadically and generally is not in the line of fire.

Their number includes 14 airmen stationed at Dover Air Force Base, here on six-month tours. Those interviewed say that while their job is to funnel supplies to those far more exposed to the enemy, they take great pride in their support role. And those on the front lines, they say, are uppermost in their thoughts as they work through 12-hour-plus days for the 455th Expeditionary Aerial Port Squadron.

“Serving here versus being out there actually in the field, in the fight … it’s a little humbling for my guys,” said Technical Sgt. Jason Fox, 29, of Hope, Ark., the Special Handling sergeant for the unit. “You know, some of them feel they should be out there, contributing more to the fight. But what we do is we pull them back, we show them the big picture of how important our job is here to supply the war effort in the field. … Without us here, they wouldn’t be able to complete their mission down there,”

“Our bottom line is that we’re moving the cargo that supplies the war fighter – food, water, weapons, ammo … everything that is coming out of here is going through us,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Anderson, 28, of Abilene, Texas, who works as a load planner. “And, especially, those people on the front lines, if they get those supplies, it’s less likely for them to not come home versus just being in a body bag.”

He said those front-liners are on his mind at work every day. “I do think about it,” Anderson said. “I do think that even though I’m not shooting a weapon … I know that I’m giving those supplies to those individuals that are.”

“I give those guys that are out there a lot of credit,” said Airman 1st Class Chad Friedrichs, 19, of Sacramento, Calif., who works in Ramp Services. “In here, it’s a little different – it’s more … a cocoon. You’re kept away from everything else, although every now and then we do get some mortars that come in here and bounce around.”

All three are permanently assigned to Dover’s 436th Aerial Port Squadron. According to Fox, they’ll be home soon – on Dec. 19 – and will be borne on a Dover-based jet. “Our own bird is taking us home,” he said, sporting a wide grin. – William H. McMichael

Army Sgt. Maj. Joseph Carretero held up a flash card for Mansor, an Afghan child seated next to him at a grade-school-size desk. “Nine, plus 12,” said Mansor, pointing to each number on the card. He paused. “21!” Mansor announced, solving the problem in a decisive tone.

“Yes!” said Carretero, dressed in his desert camouflage uniform. He and Mansor fist-bumped in celebration. Nearby, 19 other young Afghan students paired with uniformed and civilian volunteers worked on solving problems on paper, or simply writing and saying numbers in English.

All were gathered at the Cat in the Hat Language Arts Center, a barely year-old program at dusty Bagram Airfield that aims to help Afghan children ages 6-14, many of them from a school just outside the security fences that ring this busy and heavily guarded base that serves as the aviation hub of the war in Afghanistan.

“I do this partially because it’s fun,” said Tim Reid, a former airman who spent the years 2004-2007 at Dover Air Force Base, and one of the senior volunteers with the program. “And the other part, because I love working with kids.”

Reid is a civilian contractor with Mantech, Inc., who learned about the program last summer, when he saw another volunteer’s Dr. Seuss T-shirt promoting the program. The desire to “give something back” to the war-torn nation also drives him to want to work with the kids, he said.

“My main job supports the fighting vehicles,” said Reid, the father of four and a resident of Greeley, Colo. “And they go out and they get into conflict. But to be able to come here and work with the kids, teach them, and provide a more positive impression, I think, does a lot more good.”

The program has grown in its short life from once-weekly classes for 20 students, all Dari speakers from a village 15 kilometers distant, to two classes – one for boys, one for girls – three days a week, 2∏ hours at a time. Cat in the Hat serves a total of 120 children, according to another senior volunteer, Caleb Reusser of San Antonio, Texas.

“It gives these children an opportunity to actually interact with Americans,” said Reusser, a contractor with ITT Exelis supporting the 580th Signal Co., who says the program now has some 150 volunteers. “It helps show that we care about them. We’re not any different than Afghanis. That they have a future, and that we care about that future.”

The children have widely varying English-speaking skills. Monsor’s seemed relatively high. “It’s like my second time with him,” Carretero said. “I usually have a couple of kids I work with pretty frequently.”

Carretero, who has two grown children, said he tries to come to the center all three days of the week the program is offered.

“I get some self-satisfaction from being with the kids,” said Carretero, of St. Louis, Mo. “My last tour, I was outside the wire. And pretty much this tour, I’m pretty much inside. … I’m missing that interaction with the local population. And I think the kids are really getting some good perspective on Americans. … To break down the stereotypes that they might be getting from their parents, or some other people.”

“We can’t go out and affect every single child out there, “ said Reusser. “But we have an opportunity to affect some of them. So we do what we can.

“I love the program,” Reusser said. “It’s part of the reason why I decided to extend my contract here.” – William H. McMichael

After nearly one full day at Bagram Airfield, some initial impressions:

The air base at the center of the war in Afghanistan – its supply hub and the launching pad for a wide variety of missions, including the fearsome Air Force A-10 Warthogs – is one bleak landscape. Everything is beige, brown or gray, but only vaguely so. Off the narrow main thoroughfare, Disney Road, the ground is covered with crush-and-run rocks and oddments left from 11 years of war. Random chunks of asphalt. Strands of wire. Old hoses. Etc. All strewn about or leaning up against ever-present blast walls and low bunkers, and covered with …

Dust. Very fine dust. It’s on everything. You can taste it. Tonight, under the streetlights, the air is thick with it. During the day, it’s so thick it partially or totally obscures the …

Beautiful Hindu Kush range. Snow-capped mountains, some that rise as high as 25,000 feet. The base, in a valley, is surrounded by them.

Civilians, everywhere. There are some 30,000 people working and/or living on Bagram, a U.S.Soviet-built base (the U.S. built one in the area years earlier, but not on this site, according to the base historian) used as the hub of the 1979-89 Soviet invasion. (One reminder is the old Soviet air control tower, now in the midst of Camp Cunningham, the center of activity for the U.S. Air Force.) Untold numbers of them are civilians who appear to be from every nation in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Far East and more. In the dining facilities, they sometimes appear to outnumber the troops.

However, one public affairs officer noted, “Not everyone who looks like a civilian is a civilian. We have a lot of Special Forces here.”

But not THAT many. They could call this the International Civilian Assistance Force. – William H. McMichael

The highly mechanized world that is the aerial port at Dover Air Force Base seems a million miles away for Dover airmen receiving and shipping cargo at dusty Bagram Airfield in support of the war in Afghanistan.

Here, the Elevating Transfer Vehicle and automated cargo retrieval and stacking system they enjoy back at the “Super Port” is non-existent. Here, it’s all forklifts and manual load design – and the uncertainty of the weather and war.

“They have it much easier,” said Staff Sgt. Daniel Anderson of Dover’s 436th Aerial Port Squadron, who along with 14 other unit members is on a six-month deployment in support of the 455th Expeditionary Port Squadron. “We have to do it all manually out here.”

And Bagram is an unforgiving, high-paced environment, moving an average of 500 tons of cargo and about 1,000 passengers in and out of the war every day, according to Lt. Col. Luther King, the 455th commander.

“This is the busiest port in DoD,” said Senior Master Sgt. Kenneth Anderson, the 455th’s operations chief. “We move more passengers and cargo than anyone.”

The complexity of the job is enormous. The 455th prepares loads for a wide variety of aircraft, including civilian contract airlines that fly cargo the military jets can’t carry because of available space and aircraft. “What’s left over comes my way,” said Staff Sgt. Theresia Stubblefield of the 436th APS, who’s been assigned to Dover for the past seven years. “Whatever the `gray tails’ (slang for Air Force jets) can’t handle.”

Stubblefield serves as a liaison between the commercial carriers and the military. “We’re kind of like FedEx or UPS,” she said. “The units are our customers.”

Dealing with foreign carriers is only one complication. The weather is another. “We get cargo in a 60-K,” said Airman 1st Class Chad Friedrichs, 19, of the 436th, referring to the ubiquitous portable main deck “K-loaders” that can elevate to insert pallet loads in all Air Force cargo jets, and more. “We load it up. The weather cancels it. And we have to go back and unload and restack it. So basically, the six hours I spend working in that mission is for nothing.”

“The work tempo is very, very high,” said Anderson.

Their efforts soon will be rewarded with a trip home, as their six-month hitch is up in a few weeks. “We’re pretty excited,” said Anderson. “I can’t wait. I’ve only been married five months.” – William H. McMichael

We landed in Afghanistan at 12:40 a.m. Monday and gained connectivity a couple hours after landing. Here’s what we wrote and shot on the flight from Ramstein, Germany to Bagram Airfield.

Suchat and I awoke mid-morning Sunday to a blanket of snow outside the Air Force hotel at Ramstein Air Base, where we spent the night after touching down in early afternoon following our C-17 flight from Dover Air Force Base – a way station en route to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Talk about a nice facility! The hotel itself is modern and clean – 3-plus stars, easy. And it’s attached to a mall that may be the equal of Christiana in terms of size. But it’s a bit more exotic – there are stores and kiosks specializing in Egyptian and Turkish goods, Polish pottery, German beer mugs and wood carvings, and more. It also has a Base Exchange that runs the length of the mall – easily two long city blocks. The Air Force treats their people well.

In early afternoon, after clearing German customs and several layers of security, we boarded the same C-17, carrying the same cargo of replacement jet engines and armored vehicle parts, that we’d flown aboard from Dover. It was still plenty cold outside, as the jet’s wings had to be de-iced before we could take off. We lifted off around 2.

The 729th Airlift Squadron airmen who were passengers on Saturday were now our flight crew – half of them, that is. The other half rested during the seven-hour trip. That’s because after landing, the jet will get unloaded, refueled and filled with cargo being returned from the war, and the rested crew members will within a couple of hours take off and fly right back to Ramstein, where the cycle will be repeated with the unit’s other two crews, taking a short break and standing by.

All told, the crews will make four trips – two by each crew – between Ramstein and Bagram during this 11-day deployment from March Air Reserve Base, Calif.

“You’ve got to work it like a clock,” said Senior Master Sgt. Esteban Rodriguez, laughing. Rodriguez is the senior loadmaster evaluator for the 452nd Operations Group. He’s along to evaluate the 729th loadmasters but will serve as a loadmaster on the return trip from Bagram. So, like his counterpart, he had to rest up on the way from Ramstein to Bagram.

We’ve got it easy by comparison. A total of about 13 total hours in the air from Dover to Bagram, with an overnight break.

Seated across from us, this flight’s passengers include four young soldiers with the 173rd Airborne Brigade out of Vicenza, Italy. It’s their first deployment to the war. – William H. McMichael

We all found any available space on the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to lay down a sleeping bag and hope for some rest. Not the most comfortable situation on the cold floor of the aircraft but manage to get some rest. The fact that we all could stretch out to rest probably makes it more comfortable than a commercial flight. Several layers of clothing and the sleeping bag kept us relatively warm.

Crews with the 729th Airlift Squadron (729 AS) which is part of the 452d Air Mobility Wing at March Air Reserve Base, California arrive at Dover Air Force Base loading equipment bound for Bagram, Afghanistan. Departed Dover Air Base after midnight heading to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

Tech Sgt. Ryan Benson readies the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft for incoming cargo bound for Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Crews with the 729th Airlift Squadron (729 AS) which is part of the 452d Air Mobility Wing at March Air Reserve Base, California arrive at Dover Air Force Base loading equipment bound for Bagram, Afghanistan.

Bill McMichael came to The News Journal after 12 years with Navy Times and the rest of Gannett’s Military Times newspaper family, and has reported on military affairs for nearly two decades.

Suchat Pederson is an award-winning photographer who has covered a wide array of news events, including the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, the 2008 presidential election, two World Series, the Stanley Cup finals, and two NFC Championships.